Last of Gandhi’s Remains Tipped Into Sacred River

Chanting Hindu prayers, Mohandas Gandhi’s great-grandson tipped a copper urn filled with the last remains of India’s independence leader into the Ganges River on Thursday, 49 years after his murder.

Tushar Gandhi, sitting cross-legged with his wife and two children, ferried the urn on a barge decorated with flowers and draped with India’s national colors. Priests and senior Indian politicians stood behind him, their hands folded in deference.

In a 20-minute ritual, Tushar Gandhi put holy water, milk, sweetmeats, fruits and flowers into the urn before tipping the gray ashes into the Ganges.

Devout Hindus believe that immersing the ashes into a sacred river ensures eternal peace for the soul. The confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna at this central Indian town is considered one of the holiest sites in Hinduism.

Gandhi, known as the Mahatma, or great soul, was assassinated Jan. 30, 1948, by a Hindu fanatic who opposed his acquiescence to India’s partition and the creation of Pakistan.

His ashes were divided and sent to all the states of India to be scattered in rivers. For unexplained reasons, the urn that went to the state of Orissa was instead placed in a bank safe deposit box in Cuttack, 1,100 miles southeast of New Delhi.

The urn’s discovery led to a court battle by Gandhi’s great-grandson for the right to dispose of the ashes.

It also prompted much reflection on Gandhi’s message of nonviolence, secularism and simple living, and the place in Indian history of the man still called “the father of the nation.”